Harvest Week, Day One!

The first day of our fall harvest was wonderful! We had a ton of kids come out, and everyone had a lot of fun. We started in a great big community circle, where we explained to the kids what harvesting means, why it’s important, and that they were going to do get to harvest the vegetables from the garden themselves. We divided the kids up into groups by their classes and set up stations for them. We had them harvest, learn about growing their own plants, taste some watermelon and cucumber we had cut up for them (they were really excited about this part), and decorate the harvest bags that Sweetbay was nice enough to donate to the project.
















It was especially fun taking the kids around the garden to harvest today because they all already knew what they did and didn’t like, and they were excited to have some vegetables to call their own. They all wrote their names on their little cups and on their bags with their vegetables, which I think really helped reinforce the idea that they have all taken part in growing the things in the garden as much as we have. All the kids also went home with a bean, tomato, or lettuce seedling with some instructions on how they can grow vegetables at home. We wanted them to be able to take part of the garden home with them, and these little seedlings were all plants they got to see growing in the garden. I think it will also encourage many of them to keep thinking about food as something that they can grow and be in control of themselves…not just something you buy at the grocery store.




Though we had about 45 kids out at the garden today – more than we’ve ever had at once before – the teachers and Peggy were really helpful in getting them to listen and making sure everyone was having a good time. Though they were a rambunctious bunch, they were all really excited to be there, and were eager to participate in everything we had set up for them. It was a great experience.




The garden itself is looking great, with the exception of the vines – they’ve been taken over by a pesky fungus. The watermelon is very dead, so for next semester we’ll have to plant it outside of the sunflowers, and maybe we could use the fantastic trellis set up for the beans. The sunflowers are taller than many of us now, and the butterfly garden is still attracting lots of pollinators. We picked some enormous okra and zucchini today, as well as a turnip – we gave these to Peggy so she could use them in the science lab, because they aren’t good to eat raw, which is what we do with the kids when they come out to the garden. We’ve also got some beautiful green peppers and tomatoes growing! They should be about ready to pick next week, which we’ll share with all the brilliant classes that have come out to the garden over the semester.